Firefairy

I would like a ctrl-key command to hide games as well. Hoping it is in there, and I just missed it.

I missed out on that era mostly; I only remember a couple of game CDs coming with gaming magazines, and those were mostly demos. For those, there was usually both a callout on the cover and a chunk of text (usually short) in the magazine somewhere explaining the contents of the CD. After my original post, it occurred to me that that text more closely resembled the content from a box back than the front. So, no longer Devil's Advocate, but my actual opinion: maybe the magazine cover is "box front" and if the description of disk or game is available, that would be "box back"? It provides the same type of information, and at least in my own collection, I wouod like that rather than having to manually grab something to be the box art in my collection.

I am actually fine with this, but I am good at Devil's Advocate. The most valid counterargument I can think of is that the cover is for the magazine in general, not the disk, let alone the specific game. If it is available, the header or blurb for the disk or that specific game, from where it is described in the magazine, would be closer to box art. That's unlikely to be available unless the person has the physical magazine, though.

Thinking this would be something to be done on the website or as a checklist thing when syncing. The first would probably be easier to implement. Most of us have at least a few "guilty pleasure" games in our collection, and those of us who do a lot of bundle purchases probably have some games on our Steam account we don't really like or want to own up to. It would be nice if we could hide those from our collection page, however it is done.

Hm... is there any way to do a wider scan without there being Start Shortcuts? I have a zillion games, and part of the reason I use programs like LaunchBox is so that I won't have a zillion shortcuts in my Start menu. Steam and GOG cover most of it, but I also have games I installed using Itch or from Humble that I would like to gather into LaunchBox without having them in my Start menu. When I do it by folders, I have to tell it which of many, many files is the executable. It would be nice if it at least only included files as options that can actually run.

I am pulling in my Windows games into a clean database, and I noticed the text says it is scanning the files and folders I selected, but there was never an option (that I saw) to choose to aim it at only specific folders. Is this a thing? It would make dealing with importing just the games I installed manually a lot easier.

I'm in the beta and I think the main point it has over LB is that it is easy to integrate with a much larger number of game providing platforms than LB, due largely to having published an API for precisely that purpose, allowing users to create "Integrations" for platforms they like. Particularly useful for me is the Humble Bundle integration, which achieved in about fifteen seconds what took me a few hours on LB, and which can update the information similarly quickly, as opposed to me having to remember to update LB each time I acquire something there. It is definitely competition in the "game collection management" space, and the platform list they have posted on GitHub does include a number of popular emulated systems, so I don't think it is wise to assume it will remain without emulator support forever. https://github.com/gogcom/galaxy-integrations-python-api/blob/master/PLATFORM_IDs.md That said, LB already has mature emulator support, and if one of two things is done (or some mix of the two), it should be relatively easy to pick up on the portion of what GOG does that LB users are likely to want, which is the library integration with the various services. Either a similar API could be developed, and LB users could build integrations of our own, or the GOG integrations could be researched to get key information that could then be used to add those features to LB directly. It wouldn't be a terrible idea to flat out copy GOG's API if the structure is at all compatible with LB, as then all the GOG integrations would inherently become additions for LB as well. Alternatively, an Integration could be written to use LB as the launcher for all the systems it covers, thus pulling users from the GOG userbase? Addition: Also, there is one other feature that both Galaxy and the Steam launcher have that I would love to see in LaunchBox- the ability to filter by whether or not the games are currently installed. Given the nature of Launchbox, I understand that for emulated games there isn't always a way to tell if the ROMs are present at the moment, but even if it was Yes/No/Schroedinger, it would be nice to have. I always thought the reason it wasn't there was because the information wasn't visible to other programs, but there must be some way for other programs to tell if a Steam game is installed, because Galaxy filters it correctly. I would love it if LB could absorb that ability somehow.

+1 on the alternatives to actual box art, especially for games that don't have any in the real world- I have a lot of indie games released on platforms such as Itch that have literally nothing that would qualify. I assume there was a discussion somewhere about SCUMMVM being a platform and I missed it? Everything I understand about SCUMMVM seems to put it in a kind of fuzzy space where it's not technically an emulator, but it serves much the same purpose as one, and I always considered it a compatibility layer. Listing it as the platform for a game may represent current playing reality, but as far as I know, no games were actually released to be played on SCUMMVM, so it seems odd in terms of accurate data. I do understand the relevance of games being played using other software in the modern day, however, and I felt a need to track this on my own collection, so I added a custom field of "Played Via" on my collection, letting me know if something launches through SCUMMVM, DOSBox, Steam, GOG Galaxy, etc., separate from the platform of the game itself. There are quite a few games that can be played on DOSBox or SCUMMVM, for example, so even with the same files, this information is relevant. I would suggest this as a canon field, as in a collection, it is at least as useful as the Region. Not necessarily one that should be included in the Database itself, but very useful for the individual player, and could automatically populate on games that are imported as DOSBox games, Steam Games, or that are being managed by the LaunchBox instance of SCUMMVM. Still trying to work out a way to do this with the games that I have to use a regular VM for, but hey, progress. :-) Also relevant for play environment would be a field to track whether a game is VR-only, VR-optional, or non-VR. Not a big screaming priority, but it's likely to get more relevant as time goes on. For the moment, I just made another custom field for it, but I figured it was worth mentioning,

Fair enough. I made a custom field of VR with three values, but that doesn't help much for fields with drop-down options. I am noticing that some games come from the DB tagged with the platform of SCUMMVM, which isn't really optimal, given that as far as I know, no games were originally designed to be played on SCUMMVM, it is just an engine for interpreting games that were made for old enough operating systems that it is hard to get them to run anymore. I am fine with SCUMMVM and DOS both counting as platforms in the modern day, but as only one platform can be listed, I made a "played on" custom field to indicate whether I play an old game on SCUMMVM or DOSBox, that sort of thing.

Is it intentional that the List view doesn't use Sort Names? Trying to work out if I should submit a bug report or a feature request for a setting to allow users to decide if it works this way or if it uses them, like Grid View.

I have a large Steam library, and I haven't been micromanaging that (too busy getting the emulated stuff working), so it's possible that this has been a thing for a while now. Just got interested in organizing to sort the VR games out so they're easy to find, and discovered that out of the 45 games/experiences I am organizing, 5 are missing entirely from my list of games, and even when I re-import, they don't even show up as options. Is this a known thing, or should I organize a bug report? Running Launchbox 9.9 on Windows 10.

I am sorting out my Steam library, and I have some games that are non-VR (default), some that are VR only (still easy), and some that are VR-optional (my issue). I was sorting the first two categories into Platforms of Steam and Steam VR, respectively, but I haven't been able to figure out a way to hard sort the non-VR and only-VR games into separate groups, while allowing the VR-optional games to occupy both groups. I would like my normal Steam group not to include any of the games that absolutely require VR, and when I am looking for VR games, I want to be able to easily find all the games that offer it, as I don't have all that many. Custom fields look like they might be able to contribute something to the solution, but I haven't figured out any way to have them be relevant in sorting. Not sure what they're actually for, at this point. Any advice?

I have been tinkering with my install, getting things organized, and for some reason, when I cleaned out my Steam games and re-imported, the vast majority of them don't have images. It starts about halfway through my collection when listing alphabetically, so I assume something went wrong at that point. Is there a way to get a batch of games to refresh and search for images, or should I Just wipe them and re-import until they all pull the correct images? I have way too many to want to do it by hand.

Before I started using LaunchBox, I got a VirtualBox install of Windows 98 set up with about a dozen games. It worked, but I would prefer to be able to see the games separately in LaunchBox, so I am looking around and noticing people have old Windows versions running in DOSBox. I have a lot of questions for anyone who has done this. Does that work well with LaunchBox? Do you end up having a separate install of Windows for each game, or can you store the files somewhere central to avoid bloat? Can you run games so that they pop up directly, or do you still have to select them from the start menu or shortcuts once the Windows inside DOSBox opens? For anyone who has tried both, is this easier/more effective than having the games in a virtual machine in something like VirtualBox?

Pretty much what it says on the tin. I have the DOS versions of Ultima I and VI, and correct corresponding entries exist in the game database, but they don't come up when I search for them by partial versions of their names. Searching for just "ultima" or "ultima " pulls up a fair number of games with "ultimate" in the title, but the only database entries for the Ultima series it pulls up are for Ultima IX, Ultima Online, and Ultima V, in that order. This tells me that roman numerals are being recognized as text, not numbers, which is fine, but I would expect all the Ultima series entries to be in there. All the Ultima Wikipedia articles come up, also treating roman numerals as text. Searching for "Ultima I" (that being a capital I) only pulls up one database entry- the one for Ultima IX. As with the more general search, it does pull up the correct Wikipedia article. Searching the full name, "Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness", finally pulled up the correct DB entries. Searching for "Ultima VI" is similar- the correct Wikipedia article comes up, but the only DB hit is for the Ultima 6 Project. As with Ultima I, it was not until I searched the full title. "Ultima VI: The False Prophet" that the DB entries popped up. All the other games in the series scraped correctly with just their numerals, so I am not sure what is up with those two. I looked at the entries, and it doesn't appear that the others have had the short version added as alternative names. Definitely more an annoyance than a huge problem, but this indicates some problem in the interface between DB and Launchbox, as doing the exact same searches directly on the GameDB website pulls up the games just fine.

Figured out a way to tell whether a game is likely to need to be installed from the link rather than directly- if there is a scummvm or dosbox subfolder to the game, it won't launch properly unless you use the link. That said, there isn't really any reason using the link every time is bad, it just requires a few more clicks (and for me, annoys my inner old-school codger). Also- this is only relevant if you are using this install on multiple computers- some games might require you to verify or reinstall on each computer so that they have registry entries or external files that they need. From what I have seen, you should just do an install right over your existing files. This leaves your saves intact.

TL;DR: You can use a copy-paste batch file and a PowerShell script to emulate the Steam behavior that allows games to be handled well whether or not they are currently installed. You will need to know where files go with each game; the simplest way to do this is to install them, then uninstall them once you get them into LaunchBox. Full version: I came up with this after learning that the current way to import GOG/Itch/GameJolt games and any other games that don't show up in the Start menu was to create shortcuts and import those. If I was going to do that, surely I could figure out some way to have the ones that come with launchers in a friendlier fashion. So, this does involve a bit more work, but it saves me from having to keep all my games installed in order for them to show up in LaunchBox and provides a clean link to the relevant launcher/installer if I do want to play them. Once I get the batch and script set up, I can uninstall the games until I want them. In place of the shortcut, there's a batch file to run a PowerShell script. Slightly more trouble to make than a shortcut, but it's still copy-paste easy. The added bit is the script, which checks to see if the game is installed (by looking for a file that would be present if it is), and either runs the game or the relevant launcher, as appropriate. Again, copy and paste easy. I have one folder to hold the batch files, with a subfolder to hold the scripts, which keeps things nice and neat and easy to import if I need to do it again. Part 1: The Batch File. All this does is run PowerShell.exe, tell it not to bother you by asking for a signed script at the moment, then the script to run. The "remotesigned" in the middle actually tells it to still ask for signatures/permission on scripts downloaded from the internet, but not local scripts. Without that, you would need to confirm every time, which kind of misses the point of automation. The .\Scripts\ folder is the subfolder where the scripts are. So, to run the game Armikrog, which I have on GOG, I have the following batch and script. Here's the contents of my Armikrog.bat: Powershell.exe -executionpolicy remotesigned -File .\Scripts\Armikrog.ps1 Part 2: The PowerShell Script. This checks to see if a file you define is present (pick something that definitely means the game is installed), and if it is present, runs a command you define (can be the same as the first one), and if the file isn't present, runs the relevant launcher so you can install the game. The "-LiteralPath" and quotes help it handle spaces in the paths. Here are the contents of Armikrog.ps1: if (Test-Path -LiteralPath "Q:\GOG Galaxy\Games\Armikrog\Armikrog.exe") { & 'Q:\GOG Galaxy\Games\Armikrog\Armikrog.exe' } Else { & 'Q:\GOG Galaxy\GalaxyClient.exe' } The only slightly tricky part is that GOG had to do some wrangling to get old games working. For most of my games, I was able to open the Properties of the "Launch X game" shortcut in each GOG game folder, copy the target, and paste it in the first and second spots, as here. A few have command line arguments or are otherwise squirrely, so I just pointed at the shortcut itself for those. I'll respond to this thread if I hit any other snags; hopefully I can save other people some trouble. ^.^

I think it would be feasible to point LaunchBox at a folder and then manually pick out the game executables from what it finds there, but also not a programmer, so it's possible that would be a lot harder than looking for DOSBox games. Also, other users might not be as tolerant of the hand-sorting required as I tend to be. Very glad to hear that the assigning and clearing emulator tags is obsolete; that was the part I was mostly dreading. Thanks very much for the update. ^.^ Now looking forward to one day being able to track my uninstalled GOG games the way I can the Steam ones. :-J

Weird. I tested with everything turned off, and the problem persisted. Just made a completely clean profile, and it did not. Time to go poke at my install. I apologize for the erroneous report. And thanks for the tip on Vivaldi. I happen to be very fond of some plugins that don't work with the overall Chrome schema, but I will check it out as my backup for when I need a different compatibility set. ^.^

I am not sure how these forums are structured, code-wise, but when accessed via the Pale Moon browser, the actual body field of the posting page is missing, and attempting to post just a title (attempted just to see the result), the server throws an error. Pale Moon is one of the alternative browsers that people who have issues with Mozilla's recent-ish decisions about the direction Firefox should take.. This is likely to include a fair number of people who are inclined to use something like launchbox. It is also built to adhere to most web standards, so the fact that the post pages are broken in it is not a good sign. Normally, I would dig more to figure out which element is missing, etc., but I am tired, so just mentioning it here. Obviously, I have another browser available, but this does make using the forums more cumbersome. Screen clipping of the entire post UI with missing body.

I have found a few threads from last year that provide a laborious workaround for this, but I can't find anything recent. Does this still require a kludgy hack? I have most of my games installed on a removable drive. Launchbox is on the same drive. I can point it at the correct folder for my DOSBox games, and it works fine, but it still seems to only look for games that Windows knows about and has in the Start menu. I have quite a few games from GOG, and a fair number installed from physical media. They are all nicely stored in specific folders, but DOSBox doesn't know they are there, and there is no option I can find to have it scan those folders for games. The hack, as I understand it, is to have LaunchBox scan those folders for either DOSBox games (which only works if the games are .exe files) or any given emulator, then correct the access type to direct run manually on each game. I am still just barely at the point where that might be feasible, but before I do, I would like to confirm that this is this seriously the way this still works; I am really hoping I am just missing a fix that occurred in the meantime.

Are there any changes on this front in the last several months? I came to the forums to see if there was already a way to do this (specifically with GOG games, since Steam is now nicely handled) before I started hacking away at it. :-)

I just got premium (yay Black Friday), and was looking for a full feature list where I could compare the features of Pro and free Launchbox so I knew what new bells and whistles I have available. This was asked once before (in this thread) but the specific question that was prompting the list got answered sans list. In my case, the list would be the answer, but I can't find one. There is the overview on the Premium page, but that doesn't seem very detailed. If this doesn't exist, I think it would be a great addition to the site. Or maybe a thread in this forum, since maintaining a page and keeping it accurate might be a pain, depending on site architecture.

After importing Steam games, a few occur as two entries, identical except for the file number. I know I can hide or delete one, but I am not sure which one is the "real" one. Anyone know how to find out? Example: Love, Hate, and the Other Ones shows up as file 277680 and file 269270.